"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" - Haruki Murakami

Published in 1997 by Haruki Murakami, 1998 by First Vintage Int. Translation by Jay Rubin.

Murakami starts his novel with a pot of noodles, I was immediately hooked.  The pot boils, he receives a call from a woman who knows him but will not identify herself, he returns to his noodles (slightly overcooked) and he feels confused.

This novel is everything my brain connects with Japanese culture.  It is calm, it is creepily calm, even the fights are calm.  But you can't stop reading.  It centers on Toru Okada, a man who is unemployed and supported by his wife Kumiko who works in publishing.  We follow him as his cat goes missing, then his wife, he meets a psychic prostitute, gains a facial blemish, meets an old veteran who has seen awful things, takes a lot of naps and makes friends with a lot of women.

I am still a little dizzy from everything that happens and at times it gets a bit confusing.  But push on, because the last third is thrillingly well written, and mind-bendingly good.  I don't think I understand what happened yet, but it was big.  Big in a calm way, and that says something.

Quotes:
"Let's go to Crete together.  This is not the place for us anymore: not for you and not for me.  We have to go to Crete.  If you stay here, something bad is going to happen to you.  I know it.  I am sure of it."

"Money had no name, of course.  And if it did have a name, i would no longer be money.  What gave money its true meaning was its dark-night namelessness, its breathtaking interchangeability"

Rating: ****

"Atonement" - Ian McEwan

Published in 2001 by First Anchor Books

This book weighed heavily on my mind for the days that lead up to actually reading it.  I had seen the movie back in college and remember finding Kiera Knightly pretty but inept at actually conveying any real emotion, and the young girl who played Briony was intolerable and by the end I felt like I had missed the story because the characters were so distracting.

So the fact that I really truly overwhelmingly liked this book says something.  I am still not sure what that something is though.  But I am leaning in the very positive side right now.

Atonement is a novel in four parts; part one focuses on the events of a single night and how the choices a thirteen year old girl (Briony) makes can destroy the lives of others, part two focuses on the war effort in France (where Robbie, the one hurt the most by the young girls words is fighting overseas,) part three showcases the life of Briony as she has aged and can now see what she did in a different light, as well as a light dalliance on what has become of the other characters, and part four in based in London in 1999 when she finds out there isn't long for her to live.

By the end of the movie I was angry and felt that Briony was a waste of space, but the book was very different.  I felt sad for her, and for her inability to truly make amends with anyone.  Without giving away too much, this was an excellent book, definitely one of the best I have read recently.  And the twist is surprising and jolting even when you know it's coming.

Rating: ****